Karnataka ition from
slipped by one position from last year to fourth rank in Public Affairs Index-2017 released on Friday . This is the second edition of the annual ratings.

While it scored well in 10 of the 11parameters, it lost in delivery of justice -11th among big states and 18th overall.

Public Affairs Centre looked at pendency of cases in the high court and district courts, vacancy of presiding officers in district courts and tribunals and the number of undertrials. Among the big
states, Kerala topped the list again, followed by Tamil Nadu. Gujarat moved two positions up to be the third state to have better governance.
There are only 30 judges in the high court, which suffers a vacancy of more than 50%, while the number of undertrials was 9,314 (as of 2015).

Public Affairs Centre said its annual report is a framework of parameters that defines governance. It uses data from government websites, standardizes it and analyses it to measure governance.

Karnataka also scored poorly in fiscal management -10th among large states and 16th overall -but moved two positions up since 2016 (18th in India).

The state's overall rankings were balanced out with its performance in taking care of the environment and initiatives to ensure transparency while points were scored from schemes for women and children. While
it ranked second among large states on environment and transparency and accountability, it came third in women and child categories.

The report found there is still a long way to go so far as essential infrastructure such as roads and transport, power, water and housing are concerned.

Kerala emerged the foremost of larger states for the second consecutive year. Bihar was ranked the last of the list. The study categorized states based on population: 18 large states having more than 2 crore people and 12 small states with less than 2 crore people.

Of the 12 smaller states, Hi
machal Pradesh ranked first, followed by Goa, Mizoram and Sikkim respectively . Delhi was ranked ninth in the small states category but overall Delhi ranked 22nd, a major dip from 9th position in 2016.

Inequality was added as a new parameter this year, which looked at economic, social and gender factors.Karnataka ranked seventh among larger states in this category, while Kerala and Sikkim were ranked best among large and small states respectively.

C K Mathew, former bureaucrat and senior fellow at PAC said: “Governments have the largest set of data but have not been able to analyse it to improve governance. Governments that have invested more in social sectors like education and health have reaped larger dividends in the long term and are showing better signs of governance now.“